[Categories: Anime Reviews]
This Ugly Yet Beautiful World 9-12 and Final Thoughts
*Screencaps to follow*
And so, we reach the end of what could possibly be my first Gainax disappointment. To be fair, the ending isn’t half bad in that it provides closure and answers the main questions posed during the course of the series. Other than that my criticisms for the series as a whole still stand, but at least I can point the finger of blame at someone.
Sorry Saeki-san, I’m placing the responsibility of ‘what went wrong’ largely on your shoulders. I know the production involved a number of people but apart from the contributions from old Gainax veteran Hiroyuki Yamaga (you sir should know better), Saeki was in charge of the overall concept and execution - his relative inexperience really shows, which I think is what let it down in the end. Even in the interview in the DVD extras, he highlighted how challenging the project was to direct, which goes a long way to explaining why it seemed so directionless and muddled; sadly there was no time for him to explain the excessive fanservice but it’s a recurring issue I have with anime in general and isn’t something that’ll go away any time soon.
The underlying themes and overall concept of TUYBW are actually pretty good, however. We can only imagine how great it could have been had Yamaga or (dare I say it) Anno been at the helm, but you can’t take away the fact that its aims and central messages were thought-provoking and quite clever. I’m not sure whether halting the next wave of evolution is such a good thing since it’s an integral part of life on Earth: Hikari defers the extinction of humans through her own will, but what about those red butterflies that would have gone on to create the new life forms? Do they not deserve a shot at living on our planet, even if it is at the cost of our existence? It’s all very well saying that Takeru and his friends averted destruction of the human race, but I suspect that mass extinctions are thought of as A Bad Thing because we view them from our own perspective, as a species that’s at risk. As Pearl Jam said, that’s evolution baby.
I don’t know whether the series intended to portray the ending as a ‘happy’ one per se, or whether it was impartially showing one species that decided to stop the Goddess of Destruction wiping them out. Another interesting aspect of the show is how this is placed side-by-side with the emotional effects, and how the two threads change the course of one another. What does happen when an all-powerful force of nature is given a human heart?
On another level, the series explores the more well-trodden paths of romance and family but as far as that’s concerned the writers of TUYBW are trying to be a poor fan’s Hideaki Anno because such themes have been tackled within Gainax’s back catalogue (and other places too), and in my view done better. The whole issue of Takeru’s mother leaving him never really grabbed me as much as it should, and the issue of Ryo’s and Kimi’s parents still being alive and well came across as an afterthought thrown in at the last minute.
Summary
Although it has some fascinating underlying themes and sets up an interesting range of character interactions, This Ugly Yet Beautiful World is let down by distracting fan service and a lack of confidence in the direction. In terms of art work and character designs (the latter are a cosplayer’s heaven) it can’t be faulted but for a show that’s supposed to be a Twentieth Anniversary piece, it’s a disppointingly average experience that’s lacking in one or two crucial aspects.
Posted on July 16th, 2007 @ 2:57 am
Looks like our opinions are, once again, the same on this topic. This will be just another one of the forgotten modern GAINAX works.
You know, GAINAX also released The Melody of Oblivion (in conjunction with JC Staff) as another of their 20th anniversary works back in 2004. I really enjoyed this one, but it is veeeeeeery, very, very weird. You have to have the right taste to enjoy this one, but I’d say give it a try to see what you think if you haven’t seen it already. The story is interesting, the presentation is extremely unique, the music is awesome, the animation is good and the characters are fun. Sure beats the hell out of TUYBW.
Posted on July 16th, 2007 @ 6:39 pm
@KT Kore: It’s good to see great minds think alike!
I’ll give the Melody of Oblivion a look after I’ve started on Nadia - it certainly doesn’t sound like something that deserves to be forgotten. Sadly the same can’t be said of TUYBW, which will probably sit on my shelf indefinitely from now on. I’m glad I watched it but it’s not something I’ll return to any time soon.
Posted on January 31st, 2010 @ 12:39 am
Here’s what I thought of this series. It had a lot of fighting potential. I mean the character transformation was really cool and some of the fighting was really captivating and not just some poor animated action just because the fighting only happened twice in the entire series.
But then it lost me. It got too sentimental and started lingering with feelings and too many explanations. Then the action started abruptly, then it ended abruptly. Everything was resolved too easily.
This is my late night opinion after just finishing the series.
Thank you.